Now let’s say that Banksy caught Villains Vault displaying and selling unlicensed Banksy reprints as well as stuff from other street artists, you know, flagrantly, back in 2010. So then Banksy was all enough is enough, so he was all THIS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE.

And then he drew the line.

So really, the line is the piece, instead of the rat, right?

So if you just have the rat, you’re missing part of the story, right?

So it’s not just The Rat In The Hat Comes Back, right? I’m not saying that Banksy is all that deep but he’s deeper than a simple put-a-beret-on-it.

Now I understand why that KRON guy just went for the rat, but to do this job “as close as you could get to the intention Banksy had,” you’d have gotten the rest of the piece.

“The original Haight Street Rat stencil is a beret-wearing rat clutching a marker and a red line that extends from the rat to the neighboring building on the corner of Haight Street and Belvedere Street. On the adjacent building, the rat has seemingly written the text “THIS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE” in red which can be seen from the street above a clothing store that allegedly took street artists’ works and printed them on T-shirts and other apparel for sale without giving the artists any credit or revenue.”

“Named the Haight Street Rat for its placement atop a Victorian building on Haight Street, the stenciled rat clutching a red marker is now neatly framed and displayed in a location entirely unlike the one in which it was created: the lobby of the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown L.A., the city’s tallest tower and perhaps its most conspicuous symbol of capitalism. It’s a baffling venue for a piece of site-specific street art that initially wrapped across two buildings…

This video shows what can happen if you try to use “self-help” to get your stuff back after you conclude you know who just pickpocketted you:

“Messed Up: Pickpocket Victim Gets Knocked Out Trying To Get His Wallet Back!”

Notes:

This video has already been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. That amount is certainly more than the number of people who came to town to see the America’s Cup last year. I’ll tell you, those “gentlemen’s match races,” which cost us eight figures, were designed to burnish our image, nationally and internationally. But videos like these also affect our image, right? It could be that this one viral video, by itself, has erased any and all image burnishment gained by hosting AC34, right? What if SFGov exerted as much effort upon its core functions, you know, instead of having fun with Larry Ellison – what would that look like?

Self help [legal term] can work, sometimes. Good Samaritans can join in to overwhelm a team of pickpockets – that might happen. But what if you’re wrong about who took your stuff? What if you capture your “pickpocket” only to discover that s/he’s clean. Maybe your wallet was handed off to others in the team or maybe you were mistaken in the first place. Either way, you will have been putting effort into a fruitless endeavor. And the risk. The next step up would be an edged weapon, and then a firearm. OTOH, the chances of ever getting your stuff back are decreasing by the second. It’s tough to know what to do in this kind of situation.

San Francisco Sidewalk Steak – My buddies and I were walking up to the side door to Lucky River Restaurant at 700 Monterey Boulevard in San Francisco for lunch on Friday, November 21, 2014, and we saw this guy tenderizing or trying to break apart frozen meat. Yes, that appears to be frozen, raw meat that he’s slamming on the sidewalk. Maybe it’s what makes their Mongolian beef taste so good? Would you eat here after witnessing this?

Those interested in hearing a more polite version of this nativist mentality don’t need to search too far:

“We build tons of units of affordable housing, only to watch as people who live across the street from these units, who deserve to have access to these units, because of the lottery system and an organization — I’m not going to call any names, but…“

Actually, mine’s twice as good as yours, because mine has two marketing interns faking a video.

Hey Gannett! What’s your burn rate? Why don’t you move back to Virginia and make room for housing at your reclaimed wood clubhouse on Page? How many millions have you lost so far, The Bold italic, you know, since you all came to town?

1. This is just my experience, but I heard this story (see below) repeated by various people in various locations over the weekend. It could be that this one has gone viral IRL.

2. I’ll tell you, 99+% of the time when an SFPD officer asks people to clear an accident scene, people actually get up and clear the accident scene. By not clearing the scene, you’re basically saying that the peace officer you’re talking to doesn’t have the authoritah to do so. You’re making things personal.

3. If you want to hang about at an accident or crime scene, simply lie. Say, “I seen it, I seen it, I saw the whole thing!” Then you might get upgraded to Witness status and then you’ll actually have a reason for being on scene when the LT comes by to check on things, which happens sometimes.

4. Believe it or not Dude, there are situations where I myself might be asked to arrest you yourself. I’d be very unlikely to do that since I’m not a peace officer. If you sued me for false arrest, I’d have to take you seriously. OTOH, peace officers, such as the very ones you’re crusading against, do have broad powers to arrest people.Do you realize that, Dude?

5. If the SFPD is worried about getting sued, it might be over the privacy rights of those they are assisting. Did you ever think of that, Dude?

6. The SFPD has the highest-paid cops in the world. If officers don’t live in SF it’s because they choose not to live in SF. So yeah, they’ll say SF is “too expensive,” but what they mean is that SF is too expensive for what you get. Do you see the difference here, Dude?

7. You don’t know which parts of the story to omit, Dude. You win points for honesty, but you ended up digging your hole deeper.

8. What do you want, a medal for calling 911?

9. Your friends and family and employees might support your struggle, but here’s what most people are thinking, more or less:

“…having read the story, if I were to put a percentage for who is at fault in this situation for ending up in jail I’d assign Mr. TechDudeBroDouche 70%, and 30% to over aggressive policing.”

“I identified myself as the caller to the half dozen police who poured out of squad cars and stepped back onto the sidewalk in front of Radius restaurant. Sgt. Espinoza, short,* stout,* grey and assertive, asked Ben and me whether we had witnessed the accident. We said that we hadn’t, but arrived shortly thereafter. I was standing 15 feet from the scene beside Officer Kaur, a stocky* female* of South Asian** complexion.** She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. I told her we were headed home,** just across the way,** when my friend and I encountered the accident;** and that I’d recently broken my elbow** in a similar bike accident** here** and deeply cared about the outcome.**”